First of all, thanks much to Ben for posting this question and thanks to all of you for replying.As of Thursday, I will be the next president of the AKA.snip...

Congratulations on your election as AKA President.

Welcome to the Revolution Forum. I am one of the forum administrators with almost 20 years experience flying the Revolution kite.

For the 14 years proceeding this year I was a member of the AKA counterpart STACK, which is primarily in Europe. I am now back in the USA, the majority of the time.For a short period I was a member of both AKA and STACK, however I gave up the AKA membership while in Europe due to the higher membership fees for Europe.The higher fee was to cover the postage costs for Europe. I asked for a PDF version to reduce the yearly fee, however this was not considered acceptable at the time.In my signature you can see a few of my accomplishments within STACK.

Welcome to the Revolution Forum. I am one of the forum administrators with almost 20 years experience flying the Revolution kite.

The higher fee was to cover the postage costs for Europe. I asked for a PDF version to reduce the yearly fee, however this was not considered acceptable at the time.

Thanks for the welcome. One of our first tasks is to re-evaluate the magazine. Right now, the exchange rate is tipped in the favor of non-US members. Issues first travel en masse to various countries, then individual issues are separated and mailed to keep costs low. Most people just want the magazine and don't care how it is delivered. The rest are divided into 2 pretty much equal groups with strong, make that really strong, opinions on both sides. One side says; "Print only or I drop the membership." The other side says; "On-line, or I don't join." Right now the AKA can't make everyone happy. As technology evolves and new programs become available, that will change. For those of you who make forum visits a regular part of life, it is difficult to comprehend how many people do not regularly use a computer. About 15% of AKA members don't even list an email address. In addition, there is a substantial group that does not have access at home, only thru work, thus limiting what they can receive. Fewer than 10% of AKA members have even signed up for the AKA kite talk forum. Not all of the directors have signed up for the forum, and of those that are registered, few regularly post. In the last year, the treasurer, Jon Burkhardt, posted only once. You'll probably hear more from Cliff Quinn this next year.There is no magic wand to change that. Calm, reasoned discussions, with allowances made for occasional foot-in-mouth, will gradually bring others out of the lurk zone.Barbara

Thanks for the welcome. One of our first tasks is to re-evaluate the magazine. Right now, the exchange rate is tipped in the favor of non-US members. Issues first travel en masse to various countries, then individual issues are separated and mailed to keep costs low. Most people just want the magazine and don't care how it is delivered. The rest are divided into 2 pretty much equal groups with strong, make that really strong, opinions on both sides. One side says; "Print only or I drop the membership." The other side says; "On-line, or I don't join." Right now the AKA can't make everyone happy. As technology evolves and new programs become available, that will change. For those of you who make forum visits a regular part of life, it is difficult to comprehend how many people do not regularly use a computer. About 15% of AKA members don't even list an email address. In addition, there is a substantial group that does not have access at home, only thru work, thus limiting what they can receive. Fewer than 10% of AKA members have even signed up for the AKA kite talk forum. Not all of the directors have signed up for the forum, and of those that are registered, few regularly post. In the last year, the treasurer, Jon Burkhardt, posted only once. You'll probably hear more from Cliff Quinn this next year.There is no magic wand to change that. Calm, reasoned discussions, with allowances made for occasional foot-in-mouth, will gradually bring others out of the lurk zone.Barbara

Due to the costs of producing the magazine, how about offering an online version but then having an additional option of say....$10.00 per year extra (or less or whatever) for a printed copy to be delivered to those members who prefer the printed version over the online one? That way you can satisfy both parties while still being able to afford to print the hard copy. I for one love the printed copy and rarely view online magazines. I enjoy being able to sit back and read through each page without all the other distractions of the computer. Plus I don't have to scroll up and down to see the whole article. The magazine is also awesome to give to other people once I am done with it as it gives them something to take home and view or share with their friends who have no idea to what kiting is or are aware that the could spend their surfing time viewing kites instead of playing solitaire or sorting through spam.

BenThis is just how I feel but.. I love this forum and my Rev family. I would prefer that we not bring the AKA and all it's drama to our happy, positive and loving forum. If I want to see whats going on in the AKA I go to their forum.

As many of you know I am a regional director for the A.K.A. and as such I have a question that I would like answered by all themembers of this forum.1. Are you a member of the A.K.A.? 2. If you are not please tell me why?

Just saw this thread! Been out playing on the beach at Long Beach's OSOW

1. YES!

And as of this coming Thursday, I will be your Region 10 Director.

So many great reasons to be part of another extended family!

Ben, I agree with adding an AKA section here.Yes, there will be cross postings. But in case we don't all hop around and visit the other forums, the message(s) could found and read here too.

I joined about 4 years ago. It started with the great folks over at Elmers here in Portland giving me an extra AKA magazine, when I was in buying a kite. I always look forward to the magazine. For me, I will continue my membership to support the association.The AKA when at events, are not big at pushing membership. Pushy sales people come to my mind if they did.For all of us who attended WSIKF, it could not be such a well run, enjoyable event without them.

For the drama part of this. ( Sorry T if this does not come over right)For the region 10 rep, there were 2 people nominated. Our very own "Winderful" Theresa from the Kite Shoppe was 1.Well, there was a tie with 70 something votes each, and then 1 person who could have been a tiebreaker, doing a write in ballot with another name. Talk about ongoning supense.Good Luck on the re-vote T !!

And Thanks to Ben and Amy as ongoing reps here on the west coast in their regions.

We will have a spot for the AKA, we will not have any drama so please don't worry about that, if I see a problem in the future you
all know me I'll shut it down and kick it in the but for now I want us to have a place and an ear that is hard wired
to the AKA in case we as a group need answers..... Also being that we are a huge group perhaps we can lend some ideas to the
AKA, I have to tell you I believe in the new leadership we have there and think with the Families help we can get things back on
track... As we know I have taken on many tasks for different groups and this is just another but if for one second things get out of
hand I'll pull there spot.... Ben

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Due to the costs of producing the magazine, how about offering an online version but then having an additional option of say....$10.00 per year extra (or less or whatever) for a printed copy to be delivered to those members who prefer the printed version over the online one? That way you can satisfy both parties while still being able to afford to print the hard copy. I for one love the printed copy and rarely view online magazines. I enjoy being able to sit back and read through each page without all the other distractions of the computer. Plus I don't have to scroll up and down to see the whole article. The magazine is also awesome to give to other people once I am done with it as it gives them something to take home and view or share with their friends who have no idea to what kiting is or are aware that the could spend their surfing time viewing kites instead of playing solitaire or sorting through spam.

Just a thought....

All thoughts appreciated. This idea will be discussed later in the year. We have some really pressing concerns to tackle first. For a complete evaluation, the editor will be asked as to the cost differences, and the webmaster will be asked to investigate the software to make it a magazine experience and to guarantee the security of access. Let us put out some fires and come back to this.BarbaraPS Welcome Theresa! See you on the board mail tomorrow.

Due to the costs of producing the magazine, how about offering an online version but then having an additional option of say....$10.00 per year extra (or less or whatever) for a printed copy to be delivered to those members who prefer the printed version over the online one? That way you can satisfy both parties while still being able to afford to print the hard copy. I for one love the printed copy and rarely view online magazines. I enjoy being able to sit back and read through each page without all the other distractions of the computer. Plus I don't have to scroll up and down to see the whole article. The magazine is also awesome to give to other people once I am done with it as it gives them something to take home and view or share with their friends who have no idea to what kiting is or are aware that the could spend their surfing time viewing kites instead of playing solitaire or sorting through spam.

Just a thought....

I was thinking about this particular idea. When one designs printed pieces it is usually no trouble to produce an electronic version of it (PDF). How about offering 2 options for membership: A $20/25 Membership with access to download the magazine PDF. or a $40 Membership with the magazine being mailed to your door. Also! I would offer printed back issues for sale. That way if people prefer a certain issue (or their friends are featured in an article), they can purchase it. I think having a lower membership rate option would certainly attract more people to join. Less of a financial drain for those watching their pennies and a more palatable rate for people (young and old) just starting to get their feet wet in the kiting world.

I was thinking about this particular idea. When one designs printed pieces it is usually no trouble to produce an electronic version of it (PDF). How about offering 2 options for membership: A $20/25 Membership with access to download the magazine PDF. or a $40 Membership with the magazine being mailed to your door. Also! I would offer printed back issues for sale. That way if people prefer a certain issue (or their friends are featured in an article), they can purchase it. I think having a lower membership rate option would certainly attract more people to join. Less of a financial drain for those watching their pennies and a more palatable rate for people (young and old) just starting to get their feet wet in the kiting world.

Thanks for your suggestions. We will have the editor and webmaster evaluate the cost savings and potential risks.Some notes: The costs to produce a magazine include payment to editor; printing; and mailing. Costs for the editor is fixed by contract. As we decrease the number of copies printed, the cost per issue goes up due to price breaks. Postage would be the major savings. Kiting is one of the most valued benefits of membership. If/when it goes live on-line, security needs to be in place. That will be an increased cost and work to send out security codes, notification of availablity and control of downloads. How do you prevent someone from passing their code on to the entire local club? What happens if your email box is full, or there is a change of address? Currently I subscribe to a couple of magazines that are sent electronically. Neither offered a price break. Having access to it earlier was deemed a benefit in itself. The AKA doesn't have warehouse space. The goal is to get back issues into the hands of kiters. If you do need another copy, contact the executive director and most likely an additional copy can be sent your way. One goal this year is to get additional back issues in the Club House, members only, for download. This will allow new members to enjoy past issues. We'd love to have a lower membership rate. Any suggestions for other sources of revenue?Barbara

I don't think you will ever cure people sharing their information but this idea may help.

Set up an eCommerce AKA shop that digital download versions of Kiting past and present can be downloaded from.

Email members when the latest version is ready for download, and use their membership number as a voucher code
to make the purchase free of charge. No voucher code then a charge could be applied (Back Issues and potential members)

The way it works is that once somebody has purchased from your store they are sent on to the thanks page in the normal manner. On that page they will see a box with a download link that allows them to get a copy of the downloadable product. They will also receive an email regarding the purchase. This can be configured to allow the number of days following purchase that the item will be available for along with an URL and password for making the late download

The system should log the amount of downloads by xxx member and would make their details being given to a club for free downloading fairly obvious.

No email full box issues

PDF download issues could also be password protected per quarter with pw details being emailed to members.
(might cause problems and confusion in the future)

If a PDF is of a high printable quality for the member, then emailing a copy to others may be a pain because of the file size !

I have'nt thought this out that much and I am sure their are flaws in my idea, but it might be a starting point

Not to ignore all the good ideas for delivering Kiting digitally, but the real problem is how to raise revenue without raising dues. some have suggested bringing back the on-line kite raffles. Is there anyone reading this that has access to software(cheap) and is willing to help?
Are there any other ideas the AKA should be looking at?
Thanks all
Barbara

Not to ignore all the good ideas for delivering Kiting digitally, but the real problem is how to raise revenue without raising dues. some have suggested bringing back the on-line kite raffles. Is there anyone reading this that has access to software(cheap) and is willing to help?Are there any other ideas the AKA should be looking at?Thanks allBarbara

Hi Barbara, I am not sure if we met before? In any case, much of the brain storming that has been going seems to be moving in a direction that (IMHO) the AKA may need to rethink its whole approach on how it uses media to connect to the people on the planet. All media is in a state of flux, form how its made, used, and delivered.

if you want, we could talk on the phone about it. To much for me to type and express online.